WalMart Agrees to Buy Movie Service Vudu
Posted by Kevin McGuire on Monday, February 22, 2010 · 
·
· 
According to the New York Times, Walmart has agreed to buy movie service Vudu. Vudu is a 3 year old start up founded by industry veterans from companies like TiVo, WebTV, and OpenTV, to name a few. It had deals with major studios bringing the ability to purchase or rent over 5,000 titles through either a stand alone box, or recently embedded into a variety of consumer devices like TVs and DVD players.
While details of the transaction are not known, one can be safe to assume that Wal-Mart is doing it to protect/diversify their DVD sales business. One site that I came across suggested that Walmart made up nearly 40% of the total $17B DVD market back in 2006 (which I believe was before iTunes sold movies).
Will they be successful? Time will tell. With services like Netflix, Blockbuster, and Boxee having a head start, Walmart may have a difficult time differentiating itself in an increasingly crowded market. I’d bet they will adopt one of their time tested strategies to try to compete: low, low prices.
Related posts: